WIRED Summer Binge-Watching Guide: Party Down

Starz

We’ve all had that job: that strictly-for-rent-money, I’m-just-doing-this-until-my-real-career-takes-off, it’s-either-this-or-sell-my-plasma job. Maybe it was telemarketing, maybe it was washing dishes at a Pizzeria Uno (N.B.: I’ve done both), but regardless of specifics, its only saving grace was the people you shared that particular soul-sucking experience with. The camaraderie born of professional shittiness is a strong one, and Party Down celebrates that bond in the most spectacularly absurd way imaginable.

In this case, the job in question is cater-waiter, and the company is Party Down Catering. Run by reformed boozehound and unreformed sadsack Ron Donald (played by the always dependable Ken Marino, who’s no stranger to a van), it’s a team of Hollywood aspirants forced to “sling d’oeuvres” at various events in the greater Los Angeles area. (As we know, the only showbiz archetype hoarier than Sleazy Producer is Undiscovered Actor Working In Food Service.) There’s washed-up but delusional starlet Constance (Jane Lynch, who departed the show after one season for Glee); actor/”power emo” band frontman/walking haircut Kyle (Ryan Hansen, one of the many Veronica Mars actors co-creator Rob Thomas brought along for the ride); screenwriter and pedant Roman (Martin Starr, perfecting the withering superiority complex he wields so nicely now on Silicon Valley); comedian and resident sarcastic Casey (Lizzy Caplan); and Henry (Adam Scott), who went from catering to hitting it big in a beer commercial and back to catering. It’s one of the strongest cable comedy ensembles ever, up there on Mount LOLmore with Veep, The Larry Sanders Show, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And despite (or maybe because of) its brevity, the show remains one of the best binges around.

Party Down

Number of Seasons: 2 (20 episodes)

Time Requirements: A week. Ten days, maybe? Two episodes a weeknight takes up less than an hour, and then you can easily knock out four in a two-hour block on a weekend day.

Where to Get Your Fix: In one of the oddest omissions in great-TV memory, neither Netflix streaming nor Amazon Instant has the adventures of Ron Donald and crew. Your best on-demand option is using Starz Play, which is available in-browser, or as an app on iOS, Android, and Xbox 360/Xbox One—it’s like HBO Go, though, in that you’ll need an active cable subscription (or at least know someone who does) in order to get access. Other than that, the Esquire Network (which, yes, is a thing) airs reruns out of order, and single episodes are $3 a pop on iTunes or $2 on YouTube.

Best Character to Follow: Of the main crew, there’s not a dud in the bunch, but I’d actually go with Ron. Yes, Henry’s the soul of the show, and Casey is the person you most want to hang out with, but Ken Marino wears his character’s fears and foibles so close to the skin that Ron Donald approaches David Brent/Michael Scott levels. He’s the asshole boss you can’t help but feel sorry for, because you know that for every ounce of shit you’re giving him, he’s getting three times as much heaped on him from everywhere else.

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:

When you’re talking about two 10-episode runs, skipping a season is unthinkable. And even the most lukewarm episode in the series outperforms just about every three-camera sitcom out there. That being said, if you really need to save an hour from the process, make it with these: Season 1’s seventh episode, “Brandix Corporate Retreat” and Season 2’s third episode, “Nick DiCinto’s Orgy Night.” The latter is particularly disappointing because it has so much going for it. Thomas Lennon plays a recently divorced man who tries to throw an Eyes Wide Shut-style orgy, with disastrous results; however, all you really need to know about this one is the line “Goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: stay out of the fuck room.” There. Thirty minutes saved.

Seasons/Episodes You Can’t Skip:

Season 1: Episode 5, “Sin Say Shun Awards After Party” After four solid episodes, the series really hits its stride with this one, set at a porn-industry soiree. Casey pops a molly, we find out that Ron is massively endowed, and Roman proves to be so creepy and pedantic that he can’t even score with a monkey-hearted porn star named Cramsy. (And yes, whatever you’re thinking right now, that’s exactly why she’s called Cramsy.)

Season 1: Episode 6, “Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen Party” OK, stop me if you’ve heard this one: a foul-mouthed producer (the incomparable J.K. Simmons) throws his daughter a birthday party on a yacht and hires a business-savvy rapper (Kevin Hart), who Ron tries to pitch on his dream of opening a Soup R’ Crackers (“the fastest-growing non-poultry non-coffee franchise in all of Southern California”) franchise in the hood. It goes about as well as it could considering Ron’s got a contact high that makes him put his sunglasses on like this:

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Season 1: Episode 9, “James Rolf High School Twentieth Reunion” Oh, the humanity. In the worst version of I’ll-show-them ever, Ron decides to both cater and attend his own high school reunion. Failure abounds. Drunken ex-friends, pantsless air-humping, and the real reason Ron was called “Bluto” in high school.

Season 2: Episode 5, “Steve Guttenberg’s Birthday” It’s a toss-up between this and “James Rolf” for the best episode of the series, thanks in no small part to the Goot, who hosts an intimate shindig for the crew (which now includes Megan Mullally as Lydia, filling Jane Lynch/Constance’s shoes ably).

Season 2: Episode 8, “Joel Munt’s Big Deal Party” Paul Scheer guests as Roman’s one-time writing partner who hit it big. (Yes, this is the “hard sci-fi” episode you’ve all been waiting for.) Meanwhile, Ron harangues the crew for committing RDDs (which are either Ron Donald Do’s or Ron Donald Don’ts, but no one can figure out which one he means), and Henry has to figure out how to get into a locked van, leading to this exchange:

Season 2: Episode 10, “Constance Carmel Wedding” Considering that the show had a fighting chance for a third season at the time, the fact that they managed to find the logical ends of so many characters’ arcs is astonishing. (Though that probably had something to do with the fact that Adam Scott and Ryan Hansen were both departing for new gigs—Scott to Parks and Recreation and Hansen to a pilot that, uh, ended up not getting picked up.) Jane Lynch returns as Constance and hires the crew for her half-Jewish, half-hippie wedding; Roman unwittingly eats a gang of weed cookies; Lydia continually asks people what part of a woman the flanks are (“Is it vagina?”); Henry finally sacks up and heads to audition for his dream role; and perhaps most amazingly, Kyle’s band Karma Rocket writes and performs a song he wrote for Constance, which becomes one of the better Nazi jokes ever pulled off on TV.

Why You Should Binge:

What’s most remarkable about Party Down isn’t that a Starz original series manages to be legitimately fantastic, but that it’s comedy fan service three times over. Thanks to co-creator Rob Thomas, Veronica Mars’ DNA is all over the show, from Hansen and Marino to the nearly endless parade of VM cast guest appearances from folks like Enrico Colantoni and Kristen Bell. In fact, IMDb lists 61 people who have the two productions in common—22 of them actors. But it doesn’t stop at Veronica Mars. Marino’s involvement also means a handful of his buddies from sketch-ensemble-turned-comedy-mainstays The State help out: Joe Lo Truglio, Thomas Lennon, and Kerri Kenney show up in episodes, and David Wain even directed “Not On Your Wife Opening Night.” And beyond even that, the show was a magnet for people from the rest of the Judd Apatow/Children’s Hospital megaverse (Martin Starr, Kevin Hart, June Diane Raphael, Rob Huebel, Rob Corddry, Jimmi Simpson), which makes every episode a trainspotter’s delight.

Best Scene—Constance Gives Henry a Pep Talk:

Is it the funniest? Maybe not, but no other scene better lays bare the dynamic of the show: Constance’s delusional outlook, Henry’s perma-fuddled bemusement, and the existential coal-walk that is trying and failing to succeed at the one thing you love to do.

The Takeaway:

Hate your job? Believe us, it could be worse.

If You Liked Party Down You’ll Love:

Veronica Mars to see the cast all over again, or Children’s Hospital to see the cast all over again, or NTSF:SD:SUV:: to see the cast all over again, or especially the stellar Bachelor spoof Burning Love to see the cast all over again. Seriously, these people really love working together.